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Why Microsoft Hobbled The Launch Of The New Nokia Windows Phone

Their New York event was going to be the big announcement, the moment that Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop could say not just that Nokia was back, but that Nokia was back with the best smartphone in the business. Unfortunately they had to demonstrate their new cutting edge smartphones with one hand deliberately tied behind their back by Microsoft.

As the handsets were examined by the world’s press, the demonstrators kept a close eye on them. If they even so much as hinted that they were going to look at some of the new features in Windows Phone 8 then they were gently put in their place, as Andrew Orlowski of The Register found out:

Anyone who did manage to get a Lumia prototype in their mitts soon discovered new perimeters. Straying into anything messaging-related brought the Minders jumping to their feet. Straying into the ‘Settings’ brought out the killer Chihuahuas.

The secrecy is not around the Lumia 920, but Windows Phone 8. It’s either not ready, or Microsoft wants to keep it under a tight cloak of invisibility until the expected unveiling on October 26th this year. The truth is probably somewhere in-between.

No matter the reason, Nokia’s launch of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 was hampered by an inability to show off operating system and the full user interface. Once more the resizable live tiles were given pride of place by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, who was invited to the stage. In addition to the new tiles the Lumia’s new camera interface was shown. But how Windows Phone 8 works, the on-screen furniture all the handsets will be using, the look and feel that developers will be aiming for… we didn’t see any of that.

At least it was more than the slideshow presented by Samsung as they announced the Windows Phone 8 ATIV S at IFA the previous week.

I can understand Microsoft wanting to co-ordinate the launch to show all the features of Windows Phone 8 as part of their ecosystem defining Windows 8 event next month. Steve Ballmer reckons he can land one massive punch with the Windows 8 laptops and desktops, the Surface tablet computers, and a wide range of Windows Phone 8 devices, all from multiple manufactures who have chosen to work within Microsoft’s vision.

I’m actually surprised that Nokia got to show off as much as they did – although a close reading of the script will show that the four main elements demoed (the low-light PureView camera abilities, the PureMotion HD+ screen technology, the AR elements of Nokia’s location platform, and the adoption the Qi wireless charging system) could all be demonstrated without showing any elements directly relating to Windows Phone 8.

Arguably Nokia could have shown off a phone running Symbian, Meego, or even Android, and the bulk of the presentation would have been identical.

But Nokia was always going to have to accept the role as a junior partner when they paired up with Microsoft at the start of 2011, a position that Nokia is historically not used to. The launch of Windows Phone 8 will go at the speed Microsoft dictates. That means Nokia, Samsung, and HTC (who will presumably hold their ‘smartphone launch’ at their event on September 19th) will wait until Steve Ballmer says so. That’s good for Microsoft, but it leaves a rather hollow taste when a product launch can only show half of the product being launched.

Nokia had to announce at this point in time to stay in control of the story, a story which was almost derailed by a number of accurate leaks in the week before. Now they have a new product with no date when it will be available in the shops (it’s likely to be early November, eight weeks away). If nobody was going to buy a Nokia smartphone over the summer, they certainly aren’t going to buy one now, and the retail stores won’t push them because they don’t want the customer back in a few weeks demanding the new model as a free upgrade.

In a year when the Finnish smartphone company needs to retain as much sales momentum as possible, Microsoft’s decision to have a coordinated launch means Nokia are having to take an eight week break from making any money.

Hopefully the short-term pain will reward Nokia with some long-term gains.

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“but other than that it has no advantage over IOS or Android both of which are open source with millions of customized apps. (yes I give you the wireless charging but that really is not an attraction for users. ”

WP probably has a few advantages: it might be as cheap or cheaper to build a WinPho than an Android, the OS is optimized from the ground up and at the OS, not app level, Android isn’t. Unlike iphone multiple OEMs build for it, but unlike Android the user experience remains largely the same regardless of maker. It’s well integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem. It boast enterprise ready security, it runs a full blown web browser, it is truly 3-D code ready, it uses the NT kernel so it’s future ready.

So Windows Phone is an attractive mobile platform that offers some things unique compared to Apple or Android. I also think consumers DO like the Lumia line of phones and that they can compete favorably side by side next to iphone.

The issue, Donovan, is getting the Lumia into consumer’s hands, and between Nokia and the consumer is the almost Feudal-like Network Provider. Who’s going to push the WP8′s Lumia hard when they are released.

Thank you for a balanced, thoughtful article. I am hopeful for Nokia – they are not the slickest marketers, but the quality and innovation of their products does seem to be gaining momentum. I own the Lumia 900 and am looking forward to a successful release of the 920.

Microsoft in the end didn’t hurt Nokia’s chances at all. The Nokia Lumia 920 is still the best looking phone by far… the hardware specs and additional software by Nokia make it the Windows phone of choice. Nokia deciding to make the Lumia 920 exclusive to AT&T is what is going to hurt the sales of this device. They should have a phone like this open to all networks and they would have made a killing. Too bad Nokia didn’t have more confidence in their own product…. I would have bought the Lumia 920 if it was offered on the Verizon network.